Management of the developer in automated print and development apparatuses is conventionally conducted based on the processing of what is called a control strip, which is a photographic printing paper.
The control strip is a photographic printing paper where an emulsion is spread, and is located in the dark inside of a dark chamber called a control strip holder, which is provided with a shielding port exclusively for using with automated print and development apparatus. To the control strip's leading end that protrudes from the control strip holder and that is exposed is attached a special control-strip-leader with splice tape, and the leader is then installed in the automated print and development apparatus for the processing.
FIG. 1 illustrates in perspective view a conventional control strip holder. The control strip 1 is inserted in the control strip holder 2. FIG. 2 shows the sectional view of a conventional control strip holder and shows the manner in which the control strip loaded in the control strip holder of FIG. 1 is being drawn out.
The control strip 1 is attached to the leader 3 with splice tapes 4 and 5. By pulling at the leader 3, the control strip is cleared of the shielded port of the control strip holder.
While the shielded port of a conventional control strip holder is formed of oppositely placed velvets as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and the control strip is inserted through the gap in the velvets, in practice putting the control strip through the gap had been a difficult task.
In addition, owing to the fact that the force required for pulling the control strip once the said control strip is loaded in the control strip holder is also as large as roughly 1 kg, the control strip had been drawn from the automated print and development apparatus with a force supplying means by pulling a leader, which was fixed to the control strip with tapes.
Nevertheless, this process of fixing a control strip leader had not been an easy, and it is thus desired to perform the control strip processing in a much simplified manner. The present invention therefore has the objective of simplifying the control strip processing by the utilization of a new construction for the control strip holder.